Slugs Active Following Cool, Wet Conditions In Spring

Apparently, the switch to cool, rainy weather in some states this spring after a balmy March didn’t do no-tillers a favor.

Ohio State University Extension experts say that slug-feeding damage in their state is “rampant,” and some other no-tillers told us on our Facebook page that they were beginning to see issues.

Gina Hanna-Stokes thought they had armyworms in their cover crop of radishes ahead of no-till corn. “Turns out, they are slugs at each plant. Something new for us here in Wisconsin,” she wrote.

“Slugs have been active in Pennsylvania, too,” wrote no-tiller Andrew Frankenfield, who treated a few acres on May 10 with Deadline pellets and plans additional scouting. “The field had a history of slugs, and we had oat cover-crop residue, no-till corn and cool, wet conditions the past couple of weeks.” Check out the picture he sent here.

If you’re even slightly concerned about slugs this year, now’s the time to scout your fields. In this e-newsletter, you’ll find some online articles and a video about slug scouting, identification and control methods that we hope will be useful.

John Dobberstein

John Dobberstein is senior editor of No-Till Farmer magazine and the e-newsletter Dryland No-Tiller. He previously covered agriculture for the Tulsa World and worked for daily newspapers in Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Joseph, Mich. He graduated with a B.A. in journalism and political science from Central Michigan University.

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